Earlier attempts have been made to depower selected cylinders in internal combustion engines in response to changing operating power requirements. The well known Jacobson engine inhibits fuel flow to combustion chambers to allow deceleration of a vehicle without consuming fuel, however, the pistons continue to reciprocate. Beyond this limited application, it offers no real advantage.
Cadillac's Modulated Displacement Engine.sup.1, used on the 1981 DeVille, Brougham and Eldorado is another example. This engine was prone to mechanical and electronic failures. More recently, the Alfa Romeo Alfetta I.sup.2 has attempted a very similar technique and claims to surmount Cadillac's problems with better electronics. Neither of these techniques addresses the need to selectively depower cylinders and pistons by dynamically uncoupling the piston from the crankshaft and effect timely coupling when increased power is needed. In the present invention, the piston is stationary in its cylinder when decoupling is effected, unlike previous attempts where the piston remains coupled to the crankshaft to add wear and load to the engine. In the present invention, dynamic recoupling is effected so that there is proper timing with the other engine components. This has been an insurmountable obstacle in earlier attempts and, to the inventors' knowledge, this problem has never before been solved.
The related earlier application (Ser. No. 416,454) discloses the technique of manually removing, or adding, power units to couple them to the engine's power output shaft.
The past art is replete with efforts to incorporate a flywheel's energy storage ability into a vehicle's engine to capture regenerated energy.sup.3,4,5. So far, these efforts have been impractical with piston engines primarily because of weight and space limitations and the complexity of the flywheel/drivetrain interface. The present invention overcomes these objections with a simple, direct interface between the flywheel and the output power shaft.
It is well known that microprocessors are practical for automatically controlling various of the operating elements of conventional engines. Several prior U.S. patents show this technique. Examples are: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,282,947, 3,886,810 and 4,259,723. However, none of the prior art teaches the novel and useful combination and arrangement of microprocessors, replaceable power modules, flywheel and output power shaft to effect a more efficient, easily maintained engine.
______________________________________ REFERENCES CITED: ______________________________________ U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS U.S. Pat. No. 416,454 10/1982 GIULIANI ______________________________________ 4,301,776 11/1981 Fleming 123-197AC 4,313,404 2/1982 Kossel 123-58BB 4,352,345 10/1982 Menard et al. 123-414 OTHER PUBLICATIONS 1. Chilton's Auto Manual, 1974, pp. U419, U420 2. Motor Imported Car Manual, 3rd Ed, pp. I827, I828 3. Popular Science, Feb 1983, p. 64, Oct 1980 ______________________________________